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How long does it take to create a new habit? (2015)

thelogicaloptimist.com

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Re: How long does it take to create a new habit? (2015)

#131

Post by astura »

OnionBlender wrote: post #29
PaulRobinson wrote: post #6

It took me a few days to become a smoker, and a few weeks to get to the point of not wanting to smoke again (some decades later). It took me a week or so to start having a healthier breakfast and it become part of my routine, and I've been trying to have healthier lunches for years now (and still regularly fail, normally because at lunchtimes I'm tired, stressed and yearning for comfort foods like sandwiches and snac…

What is your healthier breakfast? I never really learned what is considered a healthy breakfast.

Avacado, beans, peanut/nut butter, or hummus on toast made with whole wheat bread.

Steel cut overnight oats

Cottage cheese with fruit

Leftovers from the night before

Re: How long does it take to create a new habit? (2015)

#132

Post by PaulRobinson »

lebski88 wrote: post #115
PaulRobinson wrote: post #6

It took me a few days to become a smoker, and a few weeks to get to the point of not wanting to smoke again (some decades later). It took me a week or so to start having a healthier breakfast and it become part of my routine, and I've been trying to have healthier lunches for years now (and still regularly fail, normally because at lunchtimes I'm tired, stressed and yearning for comfort foods like sandwiches and snac…

> a few weeks to get to the point of not wanting to smoke again That's a shockingly short amount of time for smoking. For me, after a few weeks I'd say some of the worst cravings had passed. But for a good year or two afterwards they'd occasionally come back, albeit briefly. I quit about 15 years ago, but given the right situation I can still feel it.

I had this a little.

I didn't actively fight it. What I did instead was note in my own head that I somehow wanted a cigarette and think to myself "OK, if I still want one in 20 minutes, I'll have one", and then went and did something else instead. An hour or two later I'd think "Oh yeah, that was weird, didn't I want a cigarette a while back?"

Very occasionally it comes back - a sunny day and a beer garden with a few pints and a pack of cigs feels like something I'd very much enjoy, for example - but it's brief and I can quickly rationalise it: "how strange a thought, for a non-smoker".

Re: How long does it take to create a new habit? (2015)

#133

Post by PaulRobinson »

OnionBlender wrote: post #29
PaulRobinson wrote: post #6

It took me a few days to become a smoker, and a few weeks to get to the point of not wanting to smoke again (some decades later). It took me a week or so to start having a healthier breakfast and it become part of my routine, and I've been trying to have healthier lunches for years now (and still regularly fail, normally because at lunchtimes I'm tired, stressed and yearning for comfort foods like sandwiches and snac…

What is your healthier breakfast? I never really learned what is considered a healthy breakfast.

Porridge with prunes, pears and cinnamon in the winter.

Fresh fruit or high-protein granola with kefir, fruit and a tiny drizzle of honey in the Summer.

Sometimes it'll be very high on protein, but also on fats: bacon (back, UK-style), sausage and egg.

The key is to get away from ultra-processed food, and I'm Type 2 diabetic so I want to reduce the amount of sugar and carbs I have. For me, I normally feel fructose > lactose > carbs > sucrose > desxtrose, and often replace lactose (dairy) with non-dairy equivalents, or make sure it has some other benefit (like kefir).

I want to make sure I feel full through to lunchtime, so protein is useful. I don't mind some carbs, if it means I have something I enjoy and don't feel I need to snack mid-morning.

TLDR: I avoid breakfast cereals (other than some high-protein granolas), add fruits like prunes, pears, maybe banana, and I don't have bread or other ultra-processed foods.

Re: How long does it take to create a new habit? (2015)

#134

Post by deinonychus »

PaulRobinson wrote: post #132
lebski88 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a few weeks to get to the point of not wanting to smoke again That's a shockingly short amount of time for smoking. For me, after a few weeks I'd say some of the worst cravings had passed. But for a good year or two afterwards they'd occasionally come back, albeit briefly. I quit about 15 years ago, but given the right situation I can still feel it.

I had this a little. I didn't actively fight it. What I did instead was note in my own head that I somehow wanted a cigarette and think to myself "OK, if I still want one in 20 minutes, I'll have one", and then went and did something else instead. An hour or two later I'd think "Oh yeah, that was weird, didn't I want a cigarette a while back?" Very occasionally it comes back - a sunny day and a beer garden with a few…

>but it's brief and I can quickly rationalise it: "how strange a thought, for a non-smoker".

i really love how you pose that. thank you for sharing, i'm going to come back to this post for inspiration. i personally get a lot of mileage out of the "lets see if i still care about this in 20 minutes" strategy for other things like food or a screen-related impulse.

Re: How long does it take to create a new habit? (2015)

#135

Post by const_cast »

rpmisms wrote: post #129
const_cast wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe what he’s referring to is the effects nicotine has on people with ADHD and ASD. It’s sort of a self-medication. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8741955/ There’s more you can find, too. Really interesting stuff. Unfortunate that nicotine is both incredibly harmful and incredibly addictive.

Nicotine itself isn't really harmful, though.

It is, unfortunately. Over time it leads to cardiovascular damage.

Re: How long does it take to create a new habit? (2015)

#136

Post by blueyes »

kayodelycaon wrote: post #55
blueyes wrote: post #7

B.J. Fogg makes this point in his book Tiny Habits. And his point *is* that you can form a habit in much less than 21 days, let alone 66. This whole question revolves around the effort/reward ratio of a behavior. When people talk about ~21 days, they're talking about doing a hard thing until it's second nature and seems easy. But there are other ways to make something seem easy, and there is another component in the…

I do feel the need to point out this model is far from universal. For instance, I'm bipolar and my brain does not do effort/reward or duration. It also forgets, ignores, or refuses things no matter how much motivation I have. I've had to find different strategies that do not rely on executive function. For example, buying a car that had a push button to start instead of a key.

Thank you for saying this. I feel like your car hack comes down on the effort side of the equation (and I admire the hack!), and I also want to say that I respect what you're saying about memory and motivation. I'm struggling with my own limits and digging into this for those reasons...

Re: How long does it take to create a new habit? (2015)

#137

Post by fossgeller »

topspin wrote: post #113
fossgeller wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always wondered about the possible negative effects of having a comfortable life. The parental love by default dictates us to create a good life for our children, which may result in too much comfort. Do tough times indeed create stronger people? If so, how could that be incorporated into the gentleness of the modern pedagogy?

Define "tough." Politicians and top tier academics, for example, are often very ruthless people, bred among wealth and generational security. They've never worked a 12h shift in a mine, but if you want to observe utterly pitiless mentalities or people that take being "judgmental" to levels you may have never suspected might exist, spend time among them. If they'll have you.

That’s true, getting spoiled by a rich and powerful family creates a whole another breed of human beings.

Initially, I was refering more to the lower classes, where overcoming challenges can thicken the skin. What I wondered was more the effects of babying a child that does not have everything from the start.

Re: How long does it take to create a new habit? (2015)

#138

Post by naasking »

HankStallone wrote: post #16
PaulRobinson wrote: post #6

It took me a few days to become a smoker, and a few weeks to get to the point of not wanting to smoke again (some decades later). It took me a week or so to start having a healthier breakfast and it become part of my routine, and I've been trying to have healthier lunches for years now (and still regularly fail, normally because at lunchtimes I'm tired, stressed and yearning for comfort foods like sandwiches and snac…

Jan 1, 2024, I made a resolution to change my diet (basically small, very simple meals with one cheat meal a week). I'd probably made a dozen such resolutions before without much success, but for some reason this one stuck right away. I never even had trouble sticking with it, and lost a pound a week over the next 10 months. Then I met my girlfriend and we went out to eat a lot, and that broke the habit. It seems lik…

> I wish I knew how I did it, because I've been unable to regain that same "this is just what I do now and it's fine" level of acceptance that seemed to be the key.

Sometimes it helps to frame as gaining something more valuable in return for giving up something less something up. For instance, if you have preplanned meals of known calorie content, and only those foods in the house, you don't have to expend energy and time thinking about what you feel like eating today, the decisions are already made. Time is considerably more precious than most trivial, daily meal decisions.

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